


Brat

by idontgiveaquiznak (punkrockmanpain)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (sort of? Lotor has unusual Galra/Altean genitals), Angst with a Happy Ending, Begging, Blowjobs, Bratting, Deepthroating, Dissociation, Face-Fucking, Flashbacks, Grinding, I don't know what the tag is for that, Intercrural Sex, Light Bondage, M/M, Multi, Name-Calling, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Spanking, Trans Keith (Voltron), Trans Lotor, Trans Male Character, Verbal Humiliation, Xenophilia, he's whatever the Galra equivalent of trans is anyway, mild gore when Shiro has a flashback to the arena, mlm author, there's a lot of Keith's hands being held down, trans author
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-16 21:25:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14819156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/punkrockmanpain/pseuds/idontgiveaquiznak
Summary: Shiro and Keith don’t know what exactly they want. Shiro wants to give Keith what he’s asked for and be the best dom ever. Really, he does. But he’s also terrified of the darker side of himself that comes out during scenes. He’d rather die than accidentally hurt Keith.Meanwhile, Keith wants Shiro to be his dom. Really, he does. But he wants to make Shiro work for it. What kind of sub does it make him if he doesn’t want to do what his dom says, at least not right away?When Lotor comes in, he doesn’t see what the problem is. Clearly Keith is a brat, and he’s not nearly as fragile as Shiro makes him out to be. Keith needs a firm hand before he can fully let go, and Lotor is more than happy to help Shiro provide that.





	Brat

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the [Voltron Kink Bang](https://voltronkinkbang.tumblr.com/), and I'm super excited to have worked with [Seitou](http://seitou.tumblr.com/) for it. Check out their art [here](https://seitoushi.tumblr.com/post/174476617046/my-second-contribution-to-the-voltronkinkbang)!
> 
> This fic is based on an idea from a bunch of folks in the Prince and Knight Discord server, where Keith is a bratty submissive, Shiro is scared of hurting him, and Lotor doesn’t see what the problem is and shows Shiro how to top the shit out of him. Because I’m me, a little bit of this became about Shiro’s trauma recovery. It’s mostly some angst with a lot of porn, though.
> 
> Keith is trans and I refer to his junk as a dick, even though he hasn’t had bottom surgery. The protrude-y part is his dick/cock and I just call his front hole his front hole, occasionally his cunt. Those are just the terms I like to use for my own body. Every trans person is different.
> 
> There’s a part that might be upsetting for trans readers, which is detailed in the end notes if you’d like to see that before getting into the fic.
> 
> This work is also unbetaed! If there are many major issues, please let me know.

The first time he and Keith tried something kinky, Shiro burst into tears.

Things had seemed great at first. Shiro was bringing his mechanical hand down on Keith’s ass, which was presented appealingly on Shiro’s bed. Keith was on his hands and knees, his back arched sharply, desperately, as though he wanted his reddening skin as close to Shiro’s hand as possible. It seemed odd that Shiro couldn’t feel the sting on his own skin, the way he would on his flesh hand. However, this hand had its advantages.

Shiro squeezed at a round cheek, warming his hand slightly the way he knew Keith liked. He’d only done this before in massages, feeling Keith’s muscles relax even more and hearing him sigh contently. Shiro didn’t know how this would feel now for Keith, on his sensitive, lovingly abused skin.

Keith moaned and arched his back higher, breathing harder. Shiro shuddered out a relieved, overwhelmed breath and brought his glowing hand back. All he was thinking about in the moment was making Keith feel good, giving him the pain he’d sweetly and guiltily asked for. He wanted Keith to know there was absolutely nothing wrong with wanting this. If anything, Shiro was the one who should feel guilty for getting off on someone’s discomfort and pain.

Shiro’s eyes flicked down to his hand’s soft purple glow, and all of a sudden, the bed in front of him transformed into a large, rocky platform in Zarkon’s arena, presumably brought there to add some interesting scenery for the fight. There was no Keith before him, only a formidable Olkari, genetically engineered by the druids to be five times broader than the typical size of the people Shiro and the other paladins would eventually meet. 

Her huge blaster had fallen from her hands and skidded across the floor when Shiro slammed her down onto her front on the rocky prop. Her large frame was shuddering with weak breaths. Some small, detached part of Shiro’s mind supposed that being slammed onto one’s chest on a hard, jagged surface must make it hard for a person to catch their breath.

Shiro raised his glowing hand, ready to strike, ready to kill her again...and then he couldn’t. He couldn’t bear seeing it all a second time: the burns on her sagging, lifeless limbs; the seared marks on the rocky platform from where his hand brushed it during the kill; the dried blood on his hand, only visible after he turned off its burning glow.

A bloodcurdling scream tore out of Shiro’s throat. He clutched at his head, only barely turning his hand off in time as he felt its heat approaching his face. He fell onto his knees, the impact knocking pain into his bones. Hot tears filled his eyes as a familiar, beloved voice asked, “Shiro, what happened?”

“I’m sorry,” Shiro babbled. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry—”

“It’s okay, Shiro.” Calloused fingers trailed down his cheek, gently bringing him back to the present. No one had ever touched him so softly in the arena. “You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s okay, you’re safe.”

Shiro’s chest shook with sobs. He no longer had the ability to push words out of his mouth, words like  _ it’s not okay _ and  _ I’m not worried that I’m not safe, I’m worried that  _ **_you’re_ ** _ not safe _ . Keith didn’t ask him to speak. He just touched his face softly until Shiro was no longer in the arena. Eventually, he could feel the cold floor on his aching knees and see just Keith’s concerned face in front of him, not bloody, burning death.

“I’m sorry,” Shiro said again, inanely.

“What was it?” Keith asked. “What triggered you?”

“My hand.” Shiro squeezed his eyes shut. “I just...I turned it on and then I saw the arena, and I can’t…” He trailed off.  _ I can’t tell you about it, because then you’ll finally realize what a monster I am. _

“Okay. Don’t turn it on next time, then.”

Shiro sniffled, wiping at his dripping nose and suddenly wishing he was fully clothed, so he could use a sleeve instead of his wrist. “You still want there to be a next time?”

“Well, yeah.” Shiro opened his eyes, unable to believe the sincerity in Keith’s gaze as he got up and went to their nightstand. “I liked it a lot, up until when...you know.”

“Okay.” Shiro breathed out slowly as Keith handed him a tissue from the drawer. “We can try it again later, then.” He blew his nose, incredulous as ever that Keith was willing to try these kinds of things with him, to give him a chance after everything he’d done.

* * *

They did try it again, multiple times, and Shiro enjoyed himself. If he wasn’t quite satisfied, if he wanted to be rougher, he told himself that it was better this way, best not to lose control, even if all it meant was fucking Keith so hard he forgot his own name. If it meant Keith still wriggled against him a little bit as they cuddled afterward, as if with pent-up energy that hadn’t been released, it was still better than Shiro losing his shit during a scene again.

He couldn’t think about what could have happened during his first scene with Keith without feeling on the verge of a panic attack. The thought of touching Keith with his ignited hand, possibly dialed up to killing strength during his flashback, made him shudder. Keith couldn’t possibly know how much danger he had been in. Shiro could never fully let go after feeling the heat of his own hand approaching his face. But that was okay. He would do his best to satisfy Keith in other ways.

Shiro wanted nothing more than to be a satisfactory, loving, and  _ safe  _ partner, which was why their last scene before Keith left with the Blade of Marmora bewildered him.

“Hurry up and fuck me!” Keith exclaimed, as Shiro dragged his fingers teasingly in and out of Keith’s wet front hole. His forearms flexed against the handcuffs binding him to Shiro’s headboard, his eyes wide and pleading and fixed on Shiro’s face. Shiro’s chest filled with something dark and wicked at the sight of their desperation. 

As enamoured as he was by Keith’s absolute trust, as greedy as he felt at his surrender of power, as much as he wanted to take all Keith had to give, Shiro held that wicked feeling within himself, as always. He could never let that part of himself escape.

“All right sweetheart, hold on.” Shiro leaned over and grabbed a condom from the nightstand. As he slipped it on, his eyes flicked back over to Keith’s face. The sudden frustration simmering in Keith’s eyes puzzled him.

“What’s wrong?” Shiro asked.

“Nothing.” Keith looked down and away from Shiro’s face. “It’s fine. Keep going.”

“It doesn’t seem like it’s fine.”

“Just drop it.”

Shiro’s cock began to soften in his own hand at the resentful look on Keith’s face. “Keith, I...I can’t get into the scene like this.”

“I just…” Keith let out a frustrated huff. “You...you don’t always have to give me what I want right away.”

“What?” Shiro tried to parse what he had said, but the statement just didn’t compute. He sat back on his heels, the idea of sex completely forgotten. “Do you...not want me to give you what you ask for?”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“Am I...am I not supposed to listen to you?”

“No, you are. I just mean that...sometimes I want you to deny me at first. Like, make me…” Keith’s eyes flicked up to his, embarrassed, then looked back down. 

He took in a deep breath. “Make me beg for it,” he mumbled.

“Oh.” Shiro breathed in deeply too. A shiver ran down his spine at the idea. “I’d like that a lot. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t think you’d want to,” Keith muttered.

“Why wouldn’t I want to?”

“I just didn’t think you’d be interested!” Keith exclaimed. Shiro blinked in shock at the explosion of feeling. He still couldn’t always predict Keith’s mood shifts. “Ever since the first time went bad, you’ve been treating me like glass! You fucked me harder before you started spanking me!”

“Keith, I...I never meant to—”

“I know you didn’t.” Keith pushed the button on the remote in his hand, disengaging the Altean handcuffs they’d found. (Shiro had refused to do this scene if Keith couldn’t free himself.) He rubbed at his own wrists, tears welling up in his eyes. “But I’m not fucking...Buttercup from  _ The Princess Bride _ . You don’t have to be all  _ as you wish _ with me all the time. I’m not some fragile fucking princess.”

A sick, horrified feeling rose in Shiro’s stomach. “Keith, if the way I’ve been treating you has made you feel...like I’m misgendering you, you should have told me. I’m so sorry.”

“That’s not what I mean.” Keith’s eyes finally locked onto Shiro’s again, and he seemed to guiltily deflate at the look on Shiro’s face. “I just… I don’t want you to give in to me right away.”

Shiro unrolled the unused condom from his dick and tossed it into the trash. He sat on the side of the bed and stared down at his own hands. “I just don’t understand. Why would you ask me for something you don’t want me to give you?” Seeing a hangnail on his left thumb, he picked at it uselessly.

Keith sighed in frustration. “I don’t know. I don’t know how to explain it.”

The room filled with a deeply uncomfortable silence as Keith leaned back against the headboard with his face in his hands. Finally, he pulled his hands down, settled them in his lap, and said, “Sometimes it seems like you’re into this. But other times it seems like you’re holding back, and you might not want to do it. And I don’t know how to trust you to tell me what you want if you’ll just go along with what I say. If you’ll do things that you’re not that into.”

The tears in Keith’s eyes finally fell as he said, “You’ve already done enough things that you didn’t want to do.”

A sharp ache sliced through Shiro’s chest, like a lightning strike cracking his heart into pieces. “I do want to do this.” He reached over to take Keith’s hand into his. “I want it very much.”

Keith shook his head, his fingers sitting limply in Shiro’s hand. “Maybe we should...just stop trying to do this for now. You want to do it, but you  _ don’t _ want to do it at the same time. And I want you to do things to me, but I  _ don’t _ want you to at the same time, or I don’t want you to do it right away. And maybe we need to figure out what the hell’s going on with us.”

Shiro nodded, tears welling in his own eyes and a cauterized, increasingly numb feeling overtaking his chest. “Sure. Whatever we need.” He squeezed Keith’s fingers lightly. “Whatever  _ you _ need.” 

With his lips drawn into a thin, pained line and tears slowly rolling down his face, Keith softly squeezed his fingers back.

* * *

The frustration in their relationship only began to build from there. Shiro hadn’t been quite the same since being recaptured by the Galra, even though he couldn’t remember anything from that time yet. He’d been snapping at the team more often, and it got worse after he started feeling like a failure, as a partner, as a former paladin, as a dom who had barely even gone on a test run. His splitting headaches didn’t help either.

Maybe, Shiro reasoned when Keith left with the Blade of Marmora, it would be a good thing for their relationship. It could be good to get some distance, get some perspective. It could help them to mature and grow.

In the end, the only perspective the distance gave Shiro was the empty half of the bed that he’d disappointed Keith on. He stared at it with half-open eyes on the many nights that Keith was on a top-secret mission and couldn’t be reached via comms. He knew it was unhealthy, morbid even, to focus so much on an empty space. He still couldn’t bring himself to fill that space and sprawl across the bed and take all of it up himself, the way he would have before Keith. He didn’t want to fill the void Keith had left in his life.

Shiro didn’t want to admit that at this point, he didn’t need to make space to accommodate Keith. He didn’t want to dwell on how he hadn’t accommodated Keith well enough before, and now he was gone. Shiro didn’t want to focus on the deep-seated feeling that maybe Keith was happier and more fulfilled now, without him. 

He tried his best not to think about any of those things as he fell asleep each night. The pounding headaches he often got while lying down made thinking difficult anyway. When he woke up, he led the team and strategized and promoted the war effort, and that helped him avoid thinking about those things too.

He didn’t realize what a shell of a person he’d become until Naxzela was saved. 

“Good work, everybody,” Shiro heard himself saying in the castleship’s hangar afterwards, as if on autopilot. “We did it.”

“Man, that was close,” Hunk said, slumping against the wall exhaustedly. 

The world around Shiro felt like it wasn’t quite real. His body didn’t feel quite real either, like he was piloting it remotely rather than actually residing within it. He distantly remembered that when walking in his own skin felt like flying his lion, it usually meant he was dissociating. The memory didn’t make him care enough to do something about it.

“Yeah, but we won! We did it!” Lance whooped and lifted Pidge into a hug. She yelped, then rolled her eyes fondly.

“Mind if I join you?” Shiro asked Hunk, flopping his back against the wall himself. He knew he needed to do something about the dissociation. But if he did, then he’d think about how the resistance had just nearly been wiped out, and how that was because he’d insisted that Voltron stay on Naxzela to find out what was going on, and how his decision was the reason they’d become trapped by the planet’s increasing gravity. And he’d think about how much he missed Keith, and… He shut his eyes.

“Put me down, you idiot,” Pidge told Lance.

“All right, jeez,” Lance said. Shiro heard the little plop of Pidge’s armored feet hitting the floor again.

“I’d like to join you as well, Hunk,” Allura said, and her armor clacked against the wall a few feet away, probably settling against the wall on Hunk’s other side.

“Guys?” a familiar, beloved voice called from across the room. “Guys!”

“Oh man, Keith!” Hunk exclaimed. Shiro’s eyes snapped open as Keith and Matt ran up to them.

“We missed you guys!” Pidge leaped forward and hugged Matt tightly. Matt laughed and ruffled her hair, tears rising into his eyes.

“I’m so glad you’re safe,” Matt said as Hunk jumped from the wall to wrap Keith in a bear hug. Keith grunted, his arms wrapping around Hunk’s back. His face was no longer visible behind Hunk’s frame, and Shiro had the odd thought that maybe he'd been a mirage the whole time, that there was no way he'd ever be so lucky as to see Keith again.

“I’m glad everyone’s safe!” Lance said. “That was a close one.”

“Indeed it was,” Allura said, smiling at them but seeming to lack the energy to emerge from the wall. “For all of us.”

“Keith?” Shiro’s voice wavered. He leaned forward, putting his body weight on his feet again, instead of the wall. The world around him seemed to start coming back into focus. He was uncomfortably aware of his body again, feeling exhaustion and desperation finally settle into his muscles.

Damn. He could have done with the dissociation a little while longer.

“Shiro.” Keith’s arms fell from behind Hunk’s back. Hunk turned back towards Shiro, revealing Keith again, small and wiry and perfect, exhausted eyes shining at Shiro like he was the best thing Keith had ever seen.

“Keith.” The name was distorted around a soft sob that suddenly bubbled up within Shiro’s throat. All the thoughts he’d been trying to suppress for months crashed upon him, and he could barely breathe under their weight. He’d been such a terrible partner, unable to give Keith what he wanted and then growing cold and distant. He’d had such an empty space in his life, but maybe Keith had been able to live without him and feel fulfilled, lacking an empty feeling in his chest when he saw the unused pillow next to him on his bed. Shiro had wanted to see Keith again so badly, needed his presence, but maybe Keith had been able to sprawl across his bed at night with barely any thought of Shiro.

An hour or so ago, Shiro had heard the voice of his beloved over the comms for the first time in weeks, and he’d been too focused on the battle at hand to realize how much of a gift that was. And now Keith was here, in person, still looking at him like he hung the stars. Shiro couldn’t convince himself that he was worth a look like that.

Keith walked up to him, lacking the effusive energy with which Hunk was now hugging Matt, but smiling elatedly nonetheless. “It’s good to be back.” He wiped a hand haphazardly at the tears pooling in his eyes, a guilty twist beginning to distort his smile.

“It’s good to have you back,” Shiro said, the role reversal barely registering as he embraced Keith. Tears ran down his face as his chest shuddered with more sobs. He distantly thought that the tears falling into Keith’s hair were yet another thing he’d have to apologize for. 

Against his chest, Keith was softly crying too. “Shiro, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done it.”

Shiro couldn’t quite process the words amidst the turmoil in his head. “I’m the one who should be sorry, Keith. I almost lost you. I—”

“No, but it would’ve been my choice. I’m the one who decided to…” Keith trailed off, looking up at Shiro with red-rimmed eyes.

“Who decided to...what?” Shiro’s eyelids were tacky with tears. He would have wiped at them but couldn’t seem to take his hands off of Keith. “What did you do?”

“Shit.” Keith shook his head, as if in disbelief with himself. “Of course you didn’t know. No one would have told you yet.”

“Told me about what?” Shiro asked sharply. The look in Keith’s eyes didn’t make him feel any better. Keith only got that softly furrowed brow and guilty twist to his mouth when he had been caught doing something self-destructive.

“Oh, he didn’t tell you?” Matt asked conversationally. Shiro hadn’t realized he had been paying attention to them.

“Matt—” Keith started.

“Nope, fuck you,” Matt said dismissively, turning to Shiro. “He almost rammed the shield.”

“With what? Do Galra fighters have a battering ram or something?” Lance asked.

“Yeah, how does that work?” Hunk asked.

Pidge’s eyes widened. “You were going to ram your ship into the shield?”

“Keith, you might not have survived that!” Allura exclaimed.

“I know,” Keith said in a small voice.

Another sob rose in Shiro’s throat, angry this time, and he barely tamped it down. “Keith, we could have lost you. Why...why would you—”

Keith exhaled softly and squeezed his eyes shut. “It seemed like the only way. Nothing else was working. But then Lotor came and...if I had been a few seconds faster, it would have been too late. It would have been for nothing.”

The hangar doors opened as a small, innovatively designed Galra fighter flew inside. Speak of the devil.

“He’d be dead right now if it wasn’t for Lotor,” Matt said.

Shiro pulled Keith tightly to his chest, tears slipping down his cheeks again. He kissed Keith’s forehead and pulled away as Lotor’s ship descended to the ground.

“Where are you going?” Keith asked.

“I’m going to go meet the man who saved your life. Wanna come with?”

Keith nodded, and they walked hand in hand toward the descending ramp on Lotor’s ship. With his helmet tucked under his left arm, Lotor walked down, a slender young man with regal posture and smooth purple skin. Deep purple half-circles lay under his eyes, and the white hair cascading down his back was lovely but a bit matted, as though he hadn’t had the opportunity to take care of it for the past day or so. He still walked with confidence, otherwise refusing to betray any exhaustion or weakness.

Shiro surged forward to grasp Lotor’s hand in his, Keith letting out a surprised, disappointed noise as they parted. Lotor blinked at Shiro in shock when he grasped Lotor’s forearm with the other hand, shaking vigorously. “I hear you’re the one who saved Keith. Thank you.”

“I’d gladly take credit for such a feat, but I don’t know who that is.” Lotor’s voice was clear, strong, casually authoritative. Shiro could already see how he could inspire such loyalty in his followers.

“This is Keith,” Shiro said, releasing Lotor and wrapping his arm around Keith’s shoulders. “He was in the ship that—”

“Ah.” Lotor cut him off with a smile. “I see.” His gaze turned to Keith, curious and appraising. “Were you in the little fighter careening towards the shield?”

“Uh...yeah.” Keith looked down sheepishly, a flush blooming across his cheeks.

Shiro half-expected Lotor to brag, to demand some kind of thanks or reward for saving Keith. Instead, Lotor gave him a slight smile. “A foolish maneuver.” He raised a fist solemnly, his knuckles facing Keith. “Foolish indeed. But brave.”

Keith stared at his hand. Before Shiro could ask what was going on, Keith raised his own fist and tapped his knuckles against Lotor's. Lotor's smile widened.

The Galra did fist bumps?  _ Well, you learn something new every day, _ Shiro thought.

“Very brave,” Lotor said as Keith's hand pulled away from his. Shiro didn't miss Keith’s deepened blush. He doubted it was caused by leftover adrenaline from the battle.

Well, Shiro reasoned as Lance ran up screaming and demanding that Lotor be locked up, there were worse things than his partner being attracted to the man who had just saved his life.

* * *

“So are you going to have me locked up again?” Lotor asked some time later, with a numb and somewhat bemused twist to his lips. Shiro had approached where Lotor sat against the wall in the hangar, near the same spot Shiro and Hunk had leaned after Naxzela. Lotor was still clutching the Black Bayard, where his father's dried blood was clumped on the handle. 

That was a funny thought. Did Zarkon... _ had _ Zarkon even had blood anymore? Or was that fluid some kind of mechanical lubricant Haggar had put into his body? Had Zarkon been more of a machine than a person when he died?

Shiro pointedly refused the urge to look down at his own mechanical hand. He didn’t want to think about that anymore.

“I never wanted to have you locked up in the first place,” Shiro told Lotor. “I didn’t trust you entirely, but I didn’t think you would do any harm to the ship or the crew.”

Lotor laughed softly. “You had no reason to trust me at all.”

“Well, you saved the man I love.” Shiro sat down next to him, extending his legs in front of him as he leaned against the wall. Lotor’s legs were folded up close to his chest. He looked uncharacteristically tense, which was more than understandable given what had just happened. “That counts for a lot, in my book.”

“It wasn’t intentional,” Lotor said. “I didn’t know who the pilot of that little fighter was.”

“Fair enough.” Shiro smiled softly. “But you saved him all the same. And you helped save him again today by defeating your father. The universe is safer for him, and everybody else, now.”

“I was saving myself, more than anybody else.” Lotor’s voice was quiet and small.

“That’s an okay thing to do too. And I still feel like I owe you a great deal.”

“I owe you more.” Lotor finally looked up from the bayard and met Shiro’s eyes, his yellow gaze striking and a bit unsettling. “If you hadn’t given me this weapon, I would have been defenseless. I would have died by my father’s hand, not the other way around.”

“I’m glad you didn’t.” Shiro stood up and offered his hand to Lotor. “Come on, let’s get you and that bayard cleaned up. We can find you a better place to sleep than that cell after that. I’m sure you’re exhausted.”

Lotor hesitated for a moment at the sight of his hand, then tentatively gripped it. As Shiro hauled him onto his feet, his eyes widened, turning glossy for the first time since the battle had ended. Shiro wondered briefly if Lotor had ever been sincerely offered help before. 

“We could all probably use a bit of a rest,” Lotor finally said, lips twitching into something resembling a smile. Shiro smiled back. It was strange to gaze directly into Lotor's eyes and realize that he was just a bit taller than Shiro. For once, Shiro wasn't the tallest person on the ship.

“I think so too,” Shiro said, just as another headache began pounding inside of his skull.

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Hey Shiro. It’s Keith. I mean, of course you know it’s me. Who else would be contacting you from this region of space? I guess one of the other Blade members, maybe. I mean...fuck, what do I say?”

“It’s all right,” Lotor said. “There’s no wrong way for you to say this.”

Keith swallowed around the lump in his throat, as he bent over the main console of a doomed ship, thousands of miles away from Shiro and all the people he loved. “That was Lotor. He’s doing this mission with me. Oh my god, you know that already. I’m so bad at this. I can’t believe I’m—”

“It’s all right,” Lotor repeated.

“That’s easy for you to say!” Keith dragged a hand down his face in frustration, tears leaking out of his eyes. “What are you even doing here? You’re an emperor now! You should be...governing things! Whatever emperors do!”

“I thought you wanted my help,” Lotor said with a raised eyebrow. “And I owe Shiro a great deal.”

Keith groaned and turned back to the console. “So we’re here on Haggar’s private ship, getting that information on how to remove that programming from your brain. The stuff that’s been hurting you and compromising our intel. You might not know that part. You were fading in and out really badly by the time we were planning the mission in-depth. And we had to stop planning it seriously around you anyway, so Haggar wouldn’t know. 

“We lied to you,” Keith said. “I’m sorry, but we gave you misinformation about the mission so Haggar would be caught off guard. And she was. I just want you to know that I would never lie to you like that if I could help it. I hope I never have to lie to you again. I hope…” He blinked more tears out of his eyes. “I hope you’re doing better now. That it’s hurting less, at least.”

Lotor stood next to him silently, as though he didn’t want to intrude on a private moment any more than he already had.

“Haggar got away, but we found the information. We’ve just sent it to the Blade, and we’re hoping it reaches them, and that they can get it to you guys afterwards. But before Haggar and her cronies got away, they rigged the ship to explode. And we’re trapped inside.”

Keith took a deep breath. “We’ve got just over a varga. We’re not sure exactly how long, because the timer fritzed out when we weren’t looking. The other Blade members are about a varga and a quarter away. They’re hurrying, but it’s going to be close. And I just...I know you might not get this in time. It’s going to take a long time for this to reach you. But if we don’t make it, I just wanted you to hear that I love you, and I hope by the time you hear this, you’re healing, and you’re happy, and you’re safe. And I wanted to tell you I’m sorry. For everything.” He took in another deep breath and exhaled slowly. “That’s all.”

Keith cut off the transmission and leaned against the wall, sliding down to the floor with his face in his trembling hands. 

“The Blade members are on their way.” Lotor’s voice was tinged with...compassion? Weird. “We still have a chance.”

“We’ve tried everything!” Keith slammed a fist against the floor with a metallic thud. “Nothing’s working! All we can do is sit and wait!”

“Yes. It’s a...frustrating situation.” Lotor sat down against the wall a few feet away from Keith, who was flapping his aching hand and hissing in pain.

“ _ Frustrating _ ? How can you say that?”

“It’s the truth.” Lotor let out a huff. Keith looked over to see an uncharacteristic glossy sheen over his eyes, the only sign of a break in his composure. Keith wanted to scream. How could Lotor not be freaking out at a time like this?

“It shouldn’t  _ be _ like this! Shiro’s waiting for me to come back to him! I can’t...I can’t let him down.” Keith turned away from him again to stare at the empty control room and the locked door on the other side, sealing them inside a room rigged to explode. Just like when Regris…

“You won’t let Shiro down.” Lotor’s tone was infuriatingly certain.

“You don’t know that!” 

“I do.” 

“How can you say that?” Keith demanded again. “There’s no way to know that the Blade will make it here in time! Just because they’re trying to hurry doesn’t mean—”

“I don’t know that they’ll make it here in time,” Lotor said. “But I know you won’t let Shiro down.”

Keith looked back at him. “What are you talking about?”

Lotor gazed upon him with a strangely soft smile. “You’ve done your best to make it back to him. We’ve tried every option we had. And in the end, when none of it worked, you sent him a message so he would know you were thinking about him until the end. You’ve done what you need to do as a partner. He won’t be disappointed with you.”

“It’s not a matter of him being disappointed with me,” Keith mumbled. “I just...want to be there with him. It’s been so long since we got some time together.”

“Ah.” Lotor nodded, giving him a knowing, infuriating smile. “I thought you seemed a little pent up.”

“W-what? What’s that got to do with—” The implication sank in. “You  _ dick _ ! I’m not just...fucking horny!”

“No, but that’s a part of it.” Lotor took some of his hair in his hand and fondled at the strands, a nervous tic that Keith had never seen in him before. “Isn’t it? I don’t mean to be crass. A craving for physical intimacy, especially with someone you love, can feel excruciating. Is that not part of what’s got you so upset? Wanting to be near him and hold him, and touch him in a way others aren’t allowed to? Especially since you haven’t gotten the opportunity to do so for a long while?”

“No!” Keith sat and thought about it a little more. “I mean…” He resentfully thunked the back of his head against the wall. “Maybe. I guess.”

“That’s what I thought.” Lotor sighed. “It’s truly a pity that you have to deal with that feeling, and that you can’t get help with it right now. I’ve always thought I’d like to have sex one last time before I die myself.”

“I can’t?”

“Can’t what?”

“Get help with it.”

Lotor looked at him quizzically, mystified by the question. “Well, no. Shiro isn’t here. There’s no one here who—”

“You’re here,” Keith said, equally puzzled.

“You—” Lotor’s upper lip twisted into a sneer. “It appears I’ve misjudged you.”

“What? Why?”

“What do you mean, why? How dare you suggest—” Lotor dropped his hair, face contorting in anger and voice rising louder than Keith had ever heard. “You would have your last act be one of infidelity? Right after you sent your partner a message saying you never want to  _ lie _ to him again? Of all the disloyal, traitorous—”

“Oh! No, it’s not infidelity,” Keith said. “Or it wouldn’t be, anyway.”

“What in Daibazaal’s name are you talking about?”

“We’re open.” Keith shrugged. “In an open relationship, I mean. We can fuck other people.”

“Oh.” Lotor’s angry expression smoothed into puzzlement again. “How...how does that work?”

“I dunno.” Keith shrugged again. “We fuck other people if we want to, and then we tell each other about it later. It’s not complicated or anything.”

“Oh. How strange.”

“Do Galra not do that?”

“Galra of higher rank do not.” Lotor turned away from him and leaned back against the wall, facing the locked door. “It is viewed as a plebeian, dishonorable action to be involved with someone in addition to your officially recognized partner. Of course, that isn’t necessarily true if you're honest with your more official partner about other liaisons, and if your relationship is negotiated well, like it seems yours and Shiro’s is. It is probably just a social norm that got started in order to keep bloodlines pure and easily traceable, but...societal programming can be hard to shake.”

Keith nodded. “Yeah. I get that.”

They sat in silence for a moment. Keith couldn’t help but fixate on the soft look of Lotor’s skin, the long fingers twirling around his even softer-looking hair, the disappointed curve of his lip. Keith desperately wanted to make him feel better. He should at least get to smile one last time before they—

“Do you need something?” Lotor asked, amused eyes flicking over to Keith’s face.

“What? I—” Keith turned away violently, the Blade armor on his back smacking against the wall as he faced the door again. “No. I don’t...I’m good.”

“Really?” Lotor chuckled to himself. Keith’s traitorous dick throbbed at the smug sound. “There’s nothing you want?”

“What would I even want?” Keith’s face felt flushed, filled with hot embarrassment. He was sure he looked ridiculous. He hated how blotchy his cheeks got when he felt like this.

“Well, you did make a certain suggestion earlier.”

“I wasn’t suggesting anything! I just meant it was a possibility. That’s all.”

“Is that a possibility you’d like to indulge in?”

Keith looked back at him in shock. “Why would you… Your attitude was so different before.”

Lotor’s lips were curved into a sharp smile, his eyes playful and calculating. “That’s when I thought I would be party to a betrayal by indulging you. But now it seems...different.” 

Keith nodded. “It is. Shiro wouldn’t see it as a betrayal at all. I think…” The tears were starting to prick at his eyes again. Goddammit. “I think he’d be glad that I...was with someone, and feeling good, in the end.”

Lotor laughed softly. “A noble man to a fault, isn’t he?”

“Yes,” Keith said, more resentment creeping to the surface than he’d expected.

“Oh?” Lotor shifted a bit closer. “Is that a hint of frustration?”

More than a hint, but Lotor didn’t need to know that. “N-no.”

Great,  _ that _ was convincing.

Lotor smirked in amusement, his mouth quirking upwards appealingly. “Certainly. If you say so.”

“I do say so,” Keith grumbled, eyes lingering on Lotor’s lips for a moment before returning to the upper half of his face.

“You never answered my question,” Lotor said.

“What question?”

“Are there any...possibilities you’d like to indulge in?”

Keith stiffened, heart pounding uncomfortably as Lotor’s cool hand brushed his cheek, taking a few runaway strands of hair and smoothing them behind his ear. “I…” He trailed off for a few still, aching moments, Lotor’s gaze making him feel pinned and trapped. Strangely enough, he had no issues with that. It was...hot in a way, to feel like he couldn’t move.

“I don’t go where I’m not wanted,” Lotor said, hand withdrawing. “I don’t think my attraction to you is unrequited, given the way you look at me when you think I’m not looking. But sometimes people aren’t ready for this kind of thing, and I respect that.”

“What—I—” Keith sputtered. “You noticed the way I look at you?”

“Yes. I don’t think it’s obvious to the majority of your teammates. Shiro has noticed many times, though. But he never seemed to have a problem with it. He always seemed a bit amused, in fact.” Lotor sighed. “I guess that makes sense now.”

A lump was emerging in Keith’s throat again at the thought of Shiro. Lotor had said Shiro always  _ seemed _ amused by it. Past tense. Maybe he wasn’t as certain that they might survive as he had said. 

“Yeah, well, you’re wanted.” Keith took Lotor’s hand and pulled it back towards his face, suddenly needing a distraction, something to keep him from thinking about the fact that they were trapped and he might never see Shiro again and—

“Pardon?” Lotor’s eyebrows raised as his fingers settled behind Keith’s ear again.

“You said you don’t go where you’re not wanted. Well, you’re wanted here. I’m ready.” Keith looked directly into his eyes, a challenge he hoped Lotor would take. “Fucking indulge me.”

Lotor smirked as his hand slid into Keith's hair, gripping it firmly. “I see. Thank you for informing me.”

Keith gasped when Lotor leaned in and kissed him, their lips sliding smoothly together as Lotor grabbed his shoulder and pushed him against the wall. His other hand continued to grip Keith’s hair tightly. Keith moaned into his mouth at the feeling of restriction, his eyes falling shut when he realized that it was difficult to move, and that he didn’t even want to.

“I have a tendency to be rough,” Lotor informed him as he leaned down to press another kiss to Keith’s neck. “I hope you don’t mind.”

Keith’s breath hitched as Lotor bit down, worrying the skin with his teeth. “That’s...not a problem.”

“I’m delighted to hear that.” Lotor kissed him again, this time slipping his tongue inside Keith’s mouth and ravishing it. When he emerged from the deep kiss to press a short, softer one to Keith’s lips, Keith’s breath was coming in sharp pants, his mouth tingling.

“Do let me know if you need to stop,” Lotor said, suddenly serious. “I’ve no intention of my last act being one of assault.”

“I’m not worried about that.” Keith leaned towards Lotor to kiss him, grunting in frustration when the hand in his hair stopped him.

“I have a tendency to be a bit...controlling as well.” Lotor gnawed at Keith’s neck again, and Keith’s hips bucked upwards as he groaned at the amazing, deep pain. “You strike me as the kind of person who’s not worried about that either.”

“Definitely not.” Keith’s hands flew up from where they had been lying at his side, grabbing Lotor’s hair and pulling him into a contentious kiss.

Lotor growled and pulled hard on Keith’s hair, the pain making Keith gasp as his grip on Lotor’s hair loosened. “You think you’re in charge here,  _ kai’la _ ?”

“I don’t know what that means, but sure.” Keith grinned at him, a repressed, impudent part of himself rising up. He had always done his best to hold back that insistent, combative tendency, knowing that Shiro wouldn’t know what to do with it. But now Lotor was here, and they had less than a varga before getting fucking blown up, and Keith didn’t feel like being good for him in the slightest.

Lotor grinned in return and wrestled him onto his back, Keith fighting him every step of the way. Panting, cheeks flushed indigo from exertion, Lotor soon had Keith’s hands pinned against the hard floor. “You know, you’re quite strong for a human.”

Keith beamed wildly up at him, his racing heart pumping exhilaration throughout his body. “I’m part Galra.”

“Ah. Ever full of surprises, aren’t you?” Lotor thrust a thigh between Keith’s legs, and their armor clanked together.

Keith threw his head back and laughed. “Guess this shit wasn’t made with sex in mind.”

“Oh, for the stars’ sake. Take your fucking clothes off.” Lotor released his hands and rolled off of him, unlatching his own armor with decisive, efficient movements. Keith wasn’t as quick at taking off his Blade armor, and he wasn’t as patient either. While Lotor continued to work on his own clothing, whipping off his undershirt and pants, Keith pounced on Lotor as soon as possible, still wearing his black underclothes.

“ _ Kai’la mashta _ ,” Lotor muttered to himself as he flipped Keith back over, the bulge in his underwear pressing into Keith’s thigh.

“I’m not impatient!” Keith exclaimed as his hands were pinned to the floor again.

Lotor’s brow furrowed in shock. “I thought you didn’t speak Galra.”

“The Blade’s been teaching me some.” Keith pulled against Lotor’s grip and grunted when it didn’t yield. “ _ Mashta _ is impatient,  _ krisha _ is asshole,  _ hamta _ isn’t really translatable, but it’s, like, a person who leaps first and asks questions later. None of them  _ quite _ translate, really, but those are the best approximations—”

Lotor laughed heartily. “I see. Do they call you these things often?”

“That’s...that’s not the point.” Keith leaned up to bite at Lotor’s lip, and Lotor gasped and pulled back with a growl.

“I’m surprised that they haven’t called you  _ kai’la _ yet, then.” 

“I’ve heard it a few times. What does it mean?”

Lotor shoved his thigh between Keith’s legs again, grinning triumphantly when Keith moaned this time. “It doesn’t quite translate either. But the closest word is probably  _ brat _ .”

“You called me an impatient brat?” Keith exclaimed.

“Is it untrue?” Lotor asked, grinding his thigh into Keith’s dick. Keith’s face heated again as he realized how wet he’d gotten, soaking through his undersuit.

“Yeah, it’s untrue!” Keith leaned up to bite his lip again, but Lotor had wised up by now and propped himself up far enough to evade him. “Well...okay. Maybe I’m a little impatient.”

Lotor snorted. He continued to grind against Keith, his brow furrowing quizzically as Keith whined and bucked into the pressure.

“I...I had heard…” Lotor trailed off, at an unusual loss for words. “I thought that human male genitalia was… Are you not aroused? Am I doing something wrong?”

Keith groaned in frustration. Of all the damn times to forget to have The Trans Conversation. “You’re not doing anything wrong. You feel that I’m wet, right?”

“I...I suppose. Is that what human male bodies typically do? I don’t have much experience with this, so I apologize for my lack of expertise. The castleship’s data on human anatomy weren’t very detailed. My understanding was that there was...hardness involved, or—”

Keith’s mouth twisted into a scowl. “No. I don’t have a typical male body. But it’s still male.” He glared up at Lotor, daring him to say something stupid. He didn’t want his last act to be yelling at a cis dude, but he’d give Lotor hell if that was the way things had to be.

Lotor blinked. Keith was resentfully pulling together basic Trans 101 information as his boner withered and died, internally bracing himself when Lotor opened his mouth. 

“You weren’t raised as male, were you?” Lotor asked.

Keith stiffened, his hands clenching in Lotor’s grip. “No.”

Lotor smiled down at him. “Neither was I.”

Keith...had not been expecting that. “You weren’t?”

“No.” Lotor released his hands and sat back on his lap. Keith stretched out his fingers while he had the opportunity, finally noticing two familiar-looking white scars running underneath Lotor’s pecs. “I’ve heard that humans have two major sexes, in addition to intersex bodies that are rarely acknowledged by society. Is that correct?” At Keith’s puzzled nod, he continued, “Galra have more major sexes than that, all of which are acknowledged by society. I belong to the rarest one. I am capable of both…” 

Lotor’s mouth curled in distaste. “I am capable of both siring and birthing children. No longer capable of nursing, as you can see.” He gestured towards his chest scars. “Those like me are viewed as commodities. Revered for our breeding capabilities. Stereotyped as...naturally submissive.” He spat out the word  _ naturally  _ like it tasted foul.

“We are not typically raised as boys. But eventually I made my preferences known.” Keith grinned at the statement. He was sure that Lotor had given them a piece of his mind. “And now that I am a man, people often don’t know how to treat my body when I am in intimate situations.”

Lotor looked down at Keith with pained violet eyes, which were surrounded by an eerie yellow but still so similar to Keith’s own. “I know it is difficult to be in an intimate encounter and have it stop because the other person is confused by your body. Because they were expecting something else. And I am sorry that you had to deal with my confusion.”

Keith shrugged. “I mean, it happens. I’m used to this kind of thing. Or I used to be until I met Shiro.”

“As I said, a noble man to a fault.” Lotor smiled. “I do hope you’ve had better experiences with him.” 

“I have.” Keith smiled back, forgetting for a moment that the clock was ticking and he might never make it back to Shiro. “I’m lucky to have him.”

Lotor shook his head. “He’s lucky to have you.” He leaned back down, draping his torso over Keith’s and kissing him.

Keith sighed and wrapped his arms around Lotor’s bare back, running his hands down the smooth skin. Lotor grabbed them and pinned them down again, sticking his thigh back between Keith’s legs and not moving it. Keith thrust down towards it and looked up at him in confusion.

“You’re getting the idea. Go ahead and ride it. You can’t expect me to do all the work for you.” Lotor’s smirk made Keith’s breath hitch, and his face flushed hot with embarrassment again. He hesitantly grinded down, moaning helplessly at the humiliation of it, rubbing himself against Lotor like a bitch in heat. Lotor grinned down at him, nearly naked where Keith’s body was fully covered, but still in control. 

“That’s it. What a good little slut.” Keith gasped at the word and grinded down harder. “Oh, do you like that?”

Keith whined when Lotor finally moved his thigh, pressing it firmly against his aching dick and wet hole. “Answer me, Keith. I asked you a question.”

“I like it,” Keith gasped, hands slack in Lotor’s grip, no longer fighting him.

“What do you like?” 

Keith turned his head away, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to gain some semblance of self-control back. “I...I like when…”

“You need to say it,” Lotor said, voice smug. “How am I supposed to know what to do if you don’t tell me what you like?” He pulled his thigh away, and Keith thrust his hips downward again. Lotor’s thigh was now too far back for him to get any pressure against his aching dick. Even with his best, most desperate efforts, Keith only grazed it.

He opened his eyes and looked up at Lotor again, silently pleading. “I like when you…”

“Yes, a good start.” Lotor pressed his thigh into him again and pulled it back quickly, and Keith moaned at the tease of pressure.

“I like when you...call me a slut,” Keith said quietly, embarrassed and elated all at once. Finally he was getting what he’d secretly, traitorously wanted for so long. He’d tried not to want it, because it seemed like Shiro didn’t like it or couldn’t handle it, but apparently he still did. Now Keith had it, and it was incredible.

“That’s it,” Lotor said soothingly. He kissed him possessively, pressing his wrists down harder into the floor and rubbing his thigh against Keith again. “You’re very wet.”

Keith nodded, overwhelmed tears welling in his eyes. Lotor’s brow crinkled with concern at the sight.

“Are you still feeling good? Would you like to keep going?”

Keith nodded again. “I want it.”

“Good. Let’s get a look at you, shall we?” Lotor released his hands, and Keith felt a pang of disappointment. Lotor guided him upwards into a seated position, sliding his hands under his shirt and giving him a questioning look. Keith nodded, and Lotor pulled his shirt off, smoothing his hands over Keith’s chest. “Lovely.”

Keith’s face heated even more at the praise. He looked down, embarrassedly noticing that his blush was extending past his collarbone now. Lotor’s purple hands ran over his pale chest, tracing his top surgery scars, dark red in contrast to the white lines running underneath Lotor’s pecs. “You have a warrior’s body.”

“I’d never thought about it like that before,” Keith said as Lotor grasped his chin and tipped it upward.

“Becoming comfortable in your own skin is a long, arduous war to fight.” Lotor kissed him gently. “There are seasoned men in the Galra military who have never fought so hard.”

He whispered against Keith’s lips, “Why don’t you show me how wet you are?”

Keith couldn’t help but moan at the suggestion, sliding his hands underneath the band of his underwear and pushing it down with his pants. 

“That’s it.” Lotor’s hand trailed down his thigh. “Spread your legs for me.”

Lotor kneeled in front of him as Keith leaned back on his hands, feeling exposed and loving it as cool air touched his wet hole. 

“I guess there is hardness involved after all, isn’t there?” Lotor traced his thumb over Keith’s aching dick, making him whine. 

“Yeah,” Keith panted. “It’s just smaller than yours.”

"I see." Lotor dragged his finger between Keith's folds, grazing over his wet hole, and Keith sighed. The motion was strangely soothing.   
  
"What about yours?" Keith asked. "Do I get to see that?"   
  
"Certainly," Lotor said with a smile. He took off his underwear, somehow managing to make the motion look graceful. Talented bastard. He reclined on his knees. "Well? What do you think?"   
  
Lotor's anatomy wasn't all that different from Keith's; he had a front hole, with his cock jutting out above it, in the same place where Keith's dick sat on his own body. His cock was relatively small for his frame, maybe five or six inches long, but thick, with intricate, faintly glowing ridges all around it that vaguely looked like Altean markings. Keith wanted to kneel in front of him and find out how the ridges felt in his mouth. 

  
"I like it," Keith said shyly, finally looking back up at his face.   
  
Lotor laughed. "I'm glad to hear that."   
  
"So do you..." Keith bit his lip. "What do you want to do?"   
  
"Hmm. Well, I'd really like to fuck you right now," Lotor said. "But it seems that I left all of my protection in my other armor."   
  
Keith snorted ruefully. "Yeah. Me too. Does it matter, though?" he asked, voice wavering. "If we aren't going to make it anyw—"   
  
"Let's hope for the best, shall we?" Lotor cut him off. "I have an alternative idea, anyway."   
  
"What's that?" Keith asked as Lotor leaned over him, pushing him onto his back once more.   
  
"Spread your legs, if you don't mind," Lotor said. Keith did so, feeling cool air brush over his hole and inner thighs again. God, he was way too wet.    
  
Lotor lifted Keith’s legs up, pushing his dick against Keith's folds. "Okay, now close them."   
  
Keith stared up at him, confused once again. Lotor still wasn't wearing any protection, and it didn't seem like he was going to fuck him either. He hissed as Lotor began moving his hips, dragging his cock over Keith's oversensitive flesh.    
  
"Trust me, you'll enjoy it."    
  
Keith clamped his legs down around Lotor's cock, and Lotor sighed, pleased. "That's it. A little tighter." Keith felt the muscles in his thighs tense as he squeezed down even more, and Lotor began thrusting harder.    
  
Keith moaned softly as what was happening finally began to sink in. Lotor was using him to get off, rutting between his legs and rubbing over his dick as if by accident. He wondered if Lotor was indeed doing it without thinking, without any regard for Keith's pleasure, just fucking his wet thighs in order to relieve his own arousal.   
  
"That's it," Lotor panted. "You seem to be enjoying yourself." Keith nodded and moaned. "I didn't even need to use any lubrication. You seem to have made plenty of your own."   
  
Keith gasped and squeezed down even tighter, face warming and muscles straining as Lotor rubbed his cock over him over and over again. He wanted so badly for it to just slip inside, push into him without any preparation so it hurt as it sank into him. He wanted Lotor to hurt him the way Shiro never would.   
  


At the thought of Shiro, Keith whined and threw his head back. He imagined Shiro rutting between his thighs like this, using him selfishly and letting go the way he never allowed himself to, using Keith’s body to gain some peace after all he'd been through. Maybe Keith should have felt guilty for thinking about someone else while with Lotor, but then his mind brought Lotor in to the fantasy too. 

He thought about Shiro thrusting inside of him as Lotor sat on his face and fucked his mouth, neither of them touching his dick, just fucking him without regard for his pleasure. He would have put up a fight for a long time, but they would have subdued him, fucking him and slapping his ass until he gave in and let them do whatever they wanted to him.   
  
He groaned at the thought, thighs tensing, and then Lotor's dick grinded down against his own just right and he was shuddering all over, his thighs squeezing Lotor's cock as he came. In his haze of pleasure he could vaguely see Lotor grinning, hear him say, "That's it, such a good little slut" as his thighs fell limp around his cock.

  
Lotor rose off of him, and Keith whined a little with the loss of skin-on-skin contact as he began jacking off furiously above him. "What a pretty picture you make," Lotor panted with a tired grin.

Keith moaned brokenly, hot all over and too sensitive, thighs trembling after being tense for so long. He could think of nothing better than being marked like this, soaking wet between his legs from his own arousal and soon to be wet wherever Lotor decided to come on him. He watched Lotor’s hand working over his cock with bated breath.   
  
Lotor’s eyes dropped shut, and he gasped as warm purple fluid slipped down his cock and fingers and fell onto Keith’s stomach. It didn't seem to be quite the same consistency as human semen. Keith watched in awe as Lotor's eyes opened again, his breath catching at the affectionate, pleasured look Lotor gave him. A blissful smile on his face, Lotor collapsed next to Keith with a huff.

Keith lay next to him on the floor, feeling pleasantly worn out for the first time in a while. He traced a finger through the mess on his stomach and laughed.

  
"What?" Lotor asked.   
  
"Nothing. Just...that was awesome." Keith squinted at the purple stuff on his finger. Definitely not the same consistency as Shiro's.   
  
Lotor turned onto his side and raised an eyebrow at Keith’s preoccupation with his semen. "I'm glad you enjoyed yourself."

  
"Keith? Lotor?" A familiar, grave voice crackled from the ship's dashboard.   
  
They both flinched. "Who is that?" Keith asked.   
  
“It’s Kolivan. We've been trying to reach you on your communicators and weren't getting through. Did they go on the fritz or something?"   
  
Keith looked over at their discarded armor guiltily. "Uh, yeah, you could say that."   
  
"You're lucky I was able to hack into the main console," Kolivan said. "We're here. We think you have less than a dobosh. You need to get over to the hangar  _ right now _ ."   
  
"Fuck!" Keith exclaimed.

They both leapt up, grabbing at their armor haphazardly. Keith threw his undershirt on as Lotor asked, "Where are you?"   
  
"We're at the first dock, which is hopefully the one closest to where you are,” Kolivan said.

“Hurry. If you don't get over here in time then we'll all get blown to hell," an unfamiliar Blade member's voice said. Keith thought he had just met them. What was their name?   
  
Fuck it, that didn't matter. "We're coming!" Keith hollered as they dashed half-naked across the room. "Can you unlock the door?"   
  
"Yes, we were able to initiate the override." Keith’s heart soared as the door finally,  _ finally _ opened. They tore through the hall in a frenzy, leaping into the hangar and running inside the ship as hastily as possible. The door slammed shut and the ship began speeding away, not giving them time to buckle up. Not the safest maneuver, but it would have been much worse to stay any longer in the ship.    
  
Keith expected a loud boom, forgetting like always that there was no sound in space. They felt the explosion buffer the ship anyway, and he and Lotor fell to the floor. Keith winced as the impact rubbed Lotor's semen against his belly, soaking it into his undershirt. Gross.   
  
"By the stars!" Kolivan exclaimed at the sight of them, Keith sprawled on the floor with his bare ass sticking up in the air. Lotor wasn’t faring much better. "What were you two doing in there?"   
  
He was unimpressed with the answer.   
  
* * *   
  
“How is he doing?” a familiar, beloved voice asked as Shiro began drifting into consciousness.

“Uh, where are your pants?” another voice asked dryly.

“That’s not important right now, Pidge,” Keith said when Shiro’s eyes opened.

“Hey,” Shiro said, his raspy voice making his throat feel scratchy. Keith stood to the left of his bed in the infirmary, towering over him for once. “You look really tall from here.”

Keith laughed, eyes weird and shiny as he kneeled next to the bed. “Is this better?” His gorgeous, good face was much closer to Shiro’s now.

“Uh-huh,” Shiro said dreamily. “I could kiss you right now, so it’s definitely better.”

“No kissing. You need to rest,” Keith said.

“Shiro,” a deep, commanding voice said. “While you’re still relatively lucid, there is something that you need to be informed of.”

“He’s hardly lucid right now,” a smoother voice said.

“Is that Lotor?” Shiro asked Keith. “His voice is so pretty.”

Keith snorted, and the guy with the smooth voice laughed too. “Yeah, that’s Lotor. I don’t know what he thinks about you calling his voice pretty, though.”

“It’s not a problem. I’m flattered,” Lotor said.

“Don’t distract from the matter at hand,” the commanding voice snapped. Shiro reluctantly looked away from Keith to see Kolivan standing at the foot of his bed, next to a shirtless Lotor. Shiro’s groggy brain couldn’t process much beyond the lean planes of muscle on Lotor’s abdomen. If he was having visions in his sleep before he died, his mind had come up with some damn good ones.

“We’re not distracting!” Keith said in frustration. “I just don’t see why we can’t wait until later! I told you, we negotiated things beforehand! This isn’t even relevant to you!”

“It certainly is relevant. The honor of a Blade member is integral to their membership. If you aren’t telling the truth and your partner has not given you permission to have relations with others, that’s a sign of compromised integrity!”

“ _ Relations _ ?” a high-pitched voice squawked. “You had relations with  _ Lotor _ ?”

“They’re barely wearing any clothes, Lance. What did you expect?” Pidge’s voice asked.

“This is such a good dream,” Shiro said, still looking at Lotor, a sleepy grin stretching his face. “You and Keith finally fucked? That’s so good.”

“Did Shiro just say the F word?” another voice asked faintly.

“Shiro cusses, Hunk!” Keith exclaimed. “Why is everyone always so surprised when he cusses?”

Lotor looked down at Shiro, seeming somewhat shocked but mollified. “It’s not a dream, Shiro,” he said, an amused quirk to his lips.

“No, it isn’t,” Shiro said, “because if it was, you and Keith would be making out right now.” The disappointing realization made him sigh and twist his neck back towards Keith, in the hope that his love would make him feel better about it.

“Oh my god!” Lance made a mock barfing noise. “I never want to think about that image ever again.”

“I told y’all we were open,” Keith said to no one in particular, stroking his fingers through Shiro’s hair.

“It’s so cute when you say y’all,” Shiro said, leaning into his touch. “I know you like to pretend you’re not from Texas, but it’s seriously so cute.”

“Keith is from  _ Texas _ ?” Lance asked.

“You’re open?” Hunk sounded puzzled. “I thought you were too, like, straightlaced for that stuff.”

“Wait, is that why they disappeared with the Faloovian ambassador on the last diplomatic mission?” Pidge asked. “For like four hours?”

“No, there’s no way,” a previously unheard voice said. By now, Shiro was awake enough to recognize it as Allura’s. “They were simply discussing the—” She let out a soft, displeased gasp. “By Altea, you weren’t discussing the treaty after all, were you?”

“I can’t believe you had a threesome with an alien!” Lance exclaimed. “I can’t even get a twosome with an alien!”

“Shiro says the F word and has sex with ambassadors and Keith,” Hunk said faintly. “Good to know.”

“Oh my god!” Keith threw up his hands. “Shiro cusses, we’re in an open relationship, and I didn’t cheat on him! We’re adults! We say bad words and have sex with other people!”

“Quit making him mad,” Shiro said to everyone, trying not to whine. “I want him to pet me again.”

“Sorry,” Keith said, stroking his cheek. Shiro sighed and leaned into his hand again. “Now that we’ve established in front of  _ literally everybody _ that I’m not a cheating asshole, can you guys leave? He’s probably tired and overwhelmed enough as it is.”

“it’s okay. I’m not overwhelmed.” Shiro tried to smile at him reassuringly. “These Altean drugs work great.”

“Then why do you look so constipated?” Keith said, eyebrows raised in suspicion.

“I’m sure we can all agree that they deserve their privacy,” Lotor said. Shiro looked back towards him at the sound of his voice. Lotor was turning around, gorgeous ivory hair looking tangled and unruly between his shoulder blades.

“You can stay,” Shiro said magnanimously. “I wanna look at your sex hair longer.”

“What?” Lotor turned back around, a perfect eyebrow cocked up questioningly. Keith must hate him for that, Shiro thought. Keith had never been able to raise just one eyebrow at once.

“Sorry,” Shiro said. “You just look really good right now. Did you and Keith get to hug after your mission? You were on a mission, right?”

“Yeah.” Keith ran his fingers through Shiro’s hair again. “Why does us hugging matter?”

“I’ll tell you after everyone else leaves,” Shiro said, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper.

“Thank you for confirming Keith’s word, Shiro.” Kolivan bowed to him slightly before turning to leave. “I apologize for bringing up such personal matters around your team. May your recovery be as swift as possible.”

“Thanks man.” Shiro leaned over to kiss at Keith’s fingers, letting out a soft, disappointed noise when his lips didn’t actually connect with anything. 

Keith snorted. “They really did drug you up good, didn’t they?”

“Mhmm. The headaches were bad. Where did you go, baby? You said something about the Ulippa system?”

“No. We were actually somewhere else. Haggar was spying on us through you, so we couldn’t give you the correct information. Hopefully the information we just got will sever her connection with you, so the headaches will stop. Coran’s working on it right now.”

“Shiro. Keith.” Shiro turned to look at Lotor, who was standing in an otherwise empty room. “I don’t wish to intrude.”

“No, stay,” Shiro said, maybe whining this time. “You and Keith haven’t hugged yet?”

“Why do we need to hug?” Keith asked.

“Because.” Shiro lowered his voice to a whisper again. “Because it would be hot.”

“What?” Keith’s snorts became full-fledged laughter this time, his gorgeous face breaking out into a wide smile.

“Shut up,” Shiro said, definitely whining this time. “I’ve had debilitating headaches the whole week. Let me have this.” He could barely force out the word  _ debilitating _ .

“Debilitatating?” Keith asked through more laughs. Okay, apparently Shiro hadn’t quite gotten the word right.

“Quit laughing at me.” Shiro could feel another wave of exhaustion run over him. He refused to start closing his eyes again. He hadn’t seen them hug yet, dammit.

“I would like to hug you, actually,” Lotor said. “If that’s alright.”

Keith laughed a final time. “I mean, sure.”

“I’m surprised.” Lotor smiled as Keith got up from his kneeling position by the bed and walked over to him. “You’ve never seemed like the hugging type.”

“Considering what you and I just did, I’m the hugging type now.” Shiro sighed happily as Keith wrapped his arms around Lotor.

Keith’s small, capable hands traced the smooth skin of Lotor’s back, the contrast between their skin tones visually pleasing. Lotor’s own much larger hands wrapped around Keith’s waist, and Shiro’s eyes dragged down Keith’s body to look at his slender, toned legs. (What had happened to his pants anyway?) He looked back up in time to see Lotor’s hand grip Keith’s ass, Keith jolting a bit in surprise and then relaxing into the touch.

“Oh man, that’s awesome,” Shiro said. 

Keith broke out into happy laughter again. “People don’t know he gets like this. He does. He’s such a pervert.”

“I see,” Lotor said, squeezing Keith’s ass. Keith sighed and let out a small moan.

“Dammit, no, I don’t wanna fall asleep,” Shiro said as his eyes began drooping without his consent. “Don’t make out again without me.”

“No promises,” Keith said, grinning at Lotor as he leaned up to press a brief kiss to his lips. “But we’ll try.” He disengaged from the embrace and walked over to Shiro, kissing his forehead. “Get some rest. I’ll be here.”

“ _ We’ll _ be here,” Lotor said. The last thing Shiro saw was Keith giving Lotor a surprised but pleased smile. This was so  _ good _ . They were so good together.

* * *

Keith knocked on Shiro’s door a few days later, his words  _ Keith, can we talk? _ still ringing in his head. The random call had given him anxiety, to say the least.

_ Talk about what? What’s wrong? _

_ It’s not a huge deal. Just...if you could come to my room, that would be great. I just want to see you. _

The door slid open to reveal a Shiro with reddened, tear-filled eyes. “I heard your message,” he said, voice choked. 

“Oh,” Keith said inanely, inadequately. “So it finally got here.”

Shiro pulled him forward into a tight hug, breathing ragged in his ear. Keith hugged back.

“They wouldn’t let me listen to it until I had a clean bill of health,” Shiro said, resentfully.

“Probably for the best. Wouldn’t have been good for you to be stressed.”

“Stressed?” Shiro laughed bitterly. “I’m hardly… Stressed isn’t the word I’d use.”

“Okay.” Keith didn’t ask what word Shiro would use, even if he was curious. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to be sorry.” Shiro pulled back and kissed his forehead, dragging his lips away slowly, as though afraid of being parted from him.

“I don’t know what else to be right now,” Keith said, prickling a little when Shiro laughed again.

“Just be here with me.” Shiro kissed him briefly on the lips, and suddenly Keith could barely remember what to be annoyed about. “That’s all you need to be.”

Shiro took his hand, and they sat on the bed. Keith couldn’t help but remember that the last interaction they’d had here had been far from pleasant. He wondered for a moment what it would have been like if that had been the last time he’d seen Shiro fully lucid and not in pain. Tears pricked at his eyes like they had during that scene.

Suddenly overwhelmed, Keith collapsed onto Shiro and wrapped his arms around him, Shiro letting out a small “ooph!” and then a chuckle. “I missed you,” he said softly, embracing Keith in turn.

“I missed you so much,” Keith said. Shiro let out a sigh that almost sounded relieved. His hand began tracing circles around Keith’s back.

“I’m sorry about...about the last time we were here,” Shiro said.

Keith laughed. “You’re thinking about that too?”

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while.” Shiro sighed. “I just...I don’t even know where to start. I’m sorry I never gave you what you wanted.”

“You don’t have to,” Keith said earnestly, pulling back to look up at him. “You never have to do anything you don’t want to.”

“I do want to give you what you want. Not just for your sake. I want to be rough and...and make you beg. I want all of those things you said you wanted too.”

“So why not do it, then?” Keith asked, trying not to sound resentful.

Shiro looked at him with pained, regretful eyes. “The first time we scened, I had a flashback. I was...remembering a time when I...hurt somebody. And my hand was turned on, and I could have hurt you really badly.”

“What?” Keith asked, puzzled. “You only had it turned on high enough to warm me up. The way you have when you’ve given me massages before.”

“Yeah, but in the flashback, I had my hand turned on all the way.”

“What does that have to do with anything? You didn’t in real life. I looked back when you hadn’t done anything for a while. It was still on the same setting.”

“Oh,” Shiro said in a small, relieved voice. “I thought that...that my hand had been matching how it was in the flashback. It was hot right before I touched my face.”

“Well, of course it was. But it’s not like you were very aware of what was happening around you. If it had been hot enough, it would have burned you way before it even got to your face. Because it gets that weird purple field around it when it’s in fighting mode.”

“Oh, thank God.” Shiro wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand, and Keith’s heart broke a little at the sight of his tears returning. “I thought I could have hurt you really badly.”

“I trust you, Shiro.” Keith pressed his lips to Shiro’s damp cheekbone. “You weren’t going to hurt me.”

“Okay.” Shiro breathed in deeply. “Okay.”

“I’ve been worried too.” Keith sighed, running a hand through Shiro’s hair. “I was never...I don’t think I’m very good at being submissive.”

“Why do you say that?” Shiro asked. “You’ve said you want me to be rough and break you down and make you beg.” He took in another deep breath, something greedy flashing in his eyes. “That sounds pretty submissive to me.”

“I don’t know. I just can’t be submissive right away. It doesn’t feel right. And sometimes I feel weird and confrontational, and—”

A knock sounded at the door. With a curious look on his face, Shiro said, “Enter.”

Lotor stepped into the room with a data pad in hand. “Shiro. Keith.” He nodded at each of them in turn. “The results are officially back. I thought you’d like to know as soon as possible that Shiro is definitely free of Haggar’s control. They’d given you a clean bill of physical health before, but the tests are showing that there are no residual signs of mind control either.”

He crossed the room, handing the pad to Shiro. “I thought you’d like to see the results yourself. We’re having some problems with the castle’s communications at the moment, so we couldn’t send them to you immediately.”

Shiro disengaged from Keith and took the data pad with a trembling hand. “That’s amazing,” he said, scrolling through the results. “Thank you.”

“Of course.”

“You should stay,” Keith said impulsively. “We haven’t gotten to hang out properly since everything happened.”

“True.” Lotor looked around the room a bit awkwardly. Shiro’s room was quite spartan and lacked any furniture to sit on besides the small chair at his desk.

“Here,” Keith said, patting the empty space next to him on the bed. Lotor smiled and sat down. Keith tried not to think about the fact that he was sandwiched between two tall, attractive men on a well-loved, well-used bed. “We were just talking about how bad I am at being submissive.”

“I would never say that,” Shiro said with concerned eyes.

“You’re not  _ bad _ at being submissive.” Lotor had a single eyebrow raised quizzically. God, Keith hated him for being able to do that. “You are just  _ kai’la _ . That is not a bad thing.”

“ _ Kai’la _ ?” Shiro repeated. “Why didn’t my translator get that?”

“He’s calling me a brat,” Keith said.

“Not necessarily. ‘Brat’ is the closest translation, but it doesn’t fully encompass the word.”

“I wouldn’t call him a brat,” Shiro said. “He’s far from disrespectful. He’s just...playful. You have to work for it.”

“Exactly. I don’t know how it is in your respective cultures, but on Altea, the word ‘brat’ denoted a certain kind of submissive who wouldn’t submit right away, who wanted their dominant to  _ earn _ their submission. But in society at large, the word carried connotations of being childish and selfish, and so that kind of submissive often wasn’t valued.”

“That’s...very similar to American conceptions of the word, actually,” Shiro said.

Lotor shook his head, as if dismissing the idea entirely. “Galra culture does not assign that kind of connotation to the word. A submissive who has spirit and requires a dominant to break them, so to speak, is highly valued. Being  _ kai’la _ means being spirited and passionate, not a child throwing a tantrum to get what they want.”

“Oh,” Keith said. “That’s...really nice.” A refreshing sense of relief began to settle over his shoulders, spreading throughout his body. He wasn’t broken. He wasn’t bad at being with Shiro. There was a word for him.

“Well, that makes sense that I didn’t know what to do at first,” Shiro said. “The subs I’ve been with before have been more traditional. There wasn’t a lot of tease and denial. It was more straightforward, which I guess was simpler, but I like a challenge.”

“Oh, he’s a wonderful challenge.” Lotor grinned, fangs just barely showing. Keith had to stop himself from pressing his thighs together at the hint of a threat. A  _ good _ threat.

“It seems you’re a bit more experienced than me when it comes to these things.”

“Well, a ten-thousand-year lifespan will do that for you,” Lotor told Shiro.

“Ten thousand years?” Keith repeated. “Wow.”

“Yes. They go by faster than you think.” Lotor looked over Keith’s shoulder at Shiro, a calculating look in his eyes. “Shiro. How willing are you to learn from experience?”

“Very,” Shiro said, seeming to pick up on something Keith wasn’t.

“I don’t wish to intrude,” Lotor said. “But I also quite enjoyed my time with Keith, and I think having you there would only add to the experience.”

“Really?” Shiro seemed somewhat in shock.

“Yeah, you’re hot,” Keith said, bewildered as ever that Shiro didn’t realize how attractive he was.

Shiro looked down at his own lap, a light flush on his cheeks. “I think I’d enjoy that experience a lot too.”

“Well, I’d love to help you and Keith discover more about how he’d like to be treated. Show you the ropes, metaphorically speaking. I don’t know if Keith wants there to be literal rope involved.”

“That’s possible,” Shiro said. “We’ve done that kind of thing before.”

“I wouldn’t mind that,” Keith said, struggling again not to press his thighs together. God, they were just casually talking about co-topping him, like Keith was supposed to  _ not _ be mindlessly turned on or something.

“Good.” Lotor’s smile showed a flash of fang again. 

“So...so when are we doing this?” Keith asked.  _ Now? _ his boner suggested unhelpfully.

“As soon as possible, hopefully. But I want to get a better sense of both of your limits beforehand.” Lotor trailed off for a moment. “How do you feel about spreadsheets?”

“You have spreadsheets for this?” Keith asked incredulously.

“Well, of course. It’s a good way to get the best understanding possible of your partner’s limits and triggers. You can cover much more than you would likely remember to ask in an in-person conversation.”

“I love spreadsheets,” Shiro said.

“Good. I’ll send them to you both as soon as the communications systems are back online.” Lotor stood up. “If both of you will excuse me, I now have a very good incentive to help get them fixed.”

“Of course,” Shiro said.

“Oh. One more thing.” Lotor kneeled down, taking Keith’s face in his hands and smiling at him. It was a close-lipped smile this time, so instead of entertaining fantasies about being bitten by those fangs, Keith found himself fixating on the curve of Lotor’s lips and the fond, calculating look in his eyes. 

“Shiro, you said you’d like to be around the next time we did this,” Lotor said.

“Did wh—” Keith found himself cut off by the soft, questioning press of Lotor’s lips against his. He kissed back enthusiastically, giving Lotor permission to go further, and suddenly Lotor’s hand was wrapping into his hair again, pulling his head back. His teeth dug into Keith’s neck, and the pain made Keith gasp and cradle the back of Lotor’s head with one hand. 

Lotor pulled back after too short a time, licking slowly over the place where a new bruise was probably forming. “Yes,” he murmured. “This is a very good incentive to get those systems fixed.”

“They don’t need to be fixed right away,” Keith said. “You can just stay here.”

“While I appreciate the invitation,” Lotor said, standing back up, “I’d like to do this right for our first time. At least get a better room for this. Not that there’s anything wrong with your room, Shiro, but I know other rooms in the castle have beds that can accommodate three people.” 

“Fair enough.” Shiro’s content grin made it clear that he wasn’t offended. “Thanks for letting me be around to see that.”

“Of course.” Lotor grinned back. “I’ll get those spreadsheets to you as soon as possible.”

Only a couple of hours after he left, Keith and Shiro received identical documents from Lotor. With two wonderfully aching bruises on his neck, one from Lotor and one given by Shiro after Lotor had left, Keith filled out his desires and limits in painstaking detail. It was the most enthusiastic he’d been about a spreadsheet in his entire life.

* * *

“Wow,” Shiro said as he and Keith entered the room Lotor had selected. The walls were just as plain as the rest of the castle, but the bed was huge, probably about king size. Shiro liked squeezing into his twin bed with Keith and being close to him, but it would be so nice to have some  _ room _ for once.

Lotor chuckled. “I like to be comfortable.” Shiro turned to look at him. He was dressed more plainly than Shiro had ever seen him, in a simple black T-shirt and pants. The novel sight of Lotor’s toned biceps, flexing slightly as he ran his hands through his own hair, seemed to have quite the effect on Keith. A light flush was appearing on his cheeks. 

“Well, we’ll definitely be comfortable here,” Shiro said with a smile, squeezing Keith’s shoulder. He wanted to make Keith blush much more deeply by the time the night was over.

“I’m glad.” Lotor walked forward, wrapping his hand into Keith’s hair and gripping it firmly. “I’m all for exchanging pleasantries, but why don’t we progress to the main event?”

“I’m all for that,” Keith said with a grin.

“Your safeword?” 

“Do you know the red/yellow/green system?” Keith asked.

Lotor shook his head. “I can’t say I’m familiar with it. What do the colors mean?”

“It’s like a stoplight,” Shiro said. “Red means stop, yellow means slow down, green means go.”

“A stoplight?” Lotor’s grip in Keith’s hair began to loosen during the discussion, and Keith let out a small, peeved groan. “I’m not familiar with this thing. It seems like a useful system, but given my lack of familiarity with the cultural significance of these colors for the two of you, I am not comfortable with using it at this time. I don’t want to forget it in the heat of the moment.”

“I’ll tell you to stop if I need to stop,” Keith said, an impatient edge to his voice. “It’s not like we’re doing an in-depth consensual non-consent scene. My safeword can be Voltron.”

“Good. Are we agreed?” Lotor asked, looking at Shiro. “Will your safeword be Voltron as well?”

“And you’ll tell us to stop if you need us to, or if you’re having a flashback,” Keith said.

Shiro nodded. “You’ll both know if I’m having a flashback, trust me.”

“It’s always good to make sure. Now,” Lotor gripped Keith’s hair, more tightly than before, and yanked his head back. “Where were we?”

A wave of fondness rose up within Shiro at the confused look in Keith’s eyes. Before Keith could give an answer like  _ What do you mean? I thought we discussed this _ , Lotor leaned in and kissed him roughly in a clash of tongues and teeth. Something in Keith seemed to snap, and he gave back as good as he got, fisting his hands in Lotor’s shirt and growling into his mouth.

“Shiro,” Lotor panted when their lips parted. “Take his hands.” He reached down and slapped Keith’s ass. When Keith’s grip loosened in his surprise, Lotor grabbed his wrists and twisted them behind his back. Shiro gripped his wrists, something feral rising up within him when Keith struggled, just enough that there was no real danger of him breaking free.

“Are you going to be good for us tonight?” Lotor asked.

“Fuck you,” Keith said, gasping when Lotor pulled his head back even further and bit his neck. 

“I was hoping you’d say that. Let’s take him to the bed, shall we?”

Shiro helped Lotor undress Keith and manhandle him until he was bent over Lotor’s lap on the bed. “Would you like to do the honors, Shiro?” Lotor held up a length of rope, pinning Keith’s hands behind his back with the other hand. With shaky anticipation, Shiro tied Keith’s hands together in a simple knot, letting them rest just above his ass.

As soon as his hands were released, Keith began wriggling impatiently. “Are you actually going to  _ do _ anything?” he demanded. 

Before today, Shiro would have felt anxious at that remark, thinking that he needed to appease Keith as quickly as possible. But he locked eyes with Lotor, who was grinning and tracing his hand over Keith’s ass, and suddenly understood that brevity of the scene wasn’t Keith’s goal at all. 

“Not if you don’t hold still,” Lotor said.

Keith grumbled, still wriggling, and Shiro decided to take matters into his own hands. “Keith,” he said, kneeling and grabbing his hair. 

“What?” Keith spat out.

“We’re going to have to punish you even more if you keep behaving like this.” Shiro brushed Keith’s hair out of his eyes and turned his head to the side gently, so he could see his face. The fire in Keith’s eyes, even more appealing now than it was during battle, made him suddenly aware of just how hard he was. A wonderful challenge indeed.

A loud smack sounded, and Keith cried out, the fire in his eyes dimming just a bit. Shiro looked up to see Lotor grabbing Keith’s ass where he’d just spanked him. “I’ll behave however I want,” Keith grumbled.

“You’re certainly free to do so,” Lotor said. “I hardly think you’re in a position to be misbehaving, though.”

Keith really wasn’t in any position to be misbehaving, bent naked over Lotor’s lap while both of his partners were still fully clothed, tied up and at their mercy. Shiro felt overwhelmed, anxious at the thought of how much power he held over Keith at the moment, at the thought of hurting him. But the anxiety faded when he looked at Keith, who was barely fighting back an elated grin.

“If you say so,” Keith said.

“If you say so, what?” Shiro asked softly.

Keith rolled his eyes. “If you say so,  _ sir _ .” The last word dripped with sarcasm, making a mockery of the title.

Lotor spanked Keith hard again before beginning a series of quick slaps. Keith moaned, his wriggling finally stopping. “Look at you, you little slut,” Lotor said. “Trying to pretend that this is having no effect on you, but look at how fucking wet you are.” He pushed a couple of fingers between Keith’s trembling legs. “I can see it on your thighs.”

“Is that right?” Shiro leaned forward to kiss Keith softly, grinning and pulling back when Keith tried to reciprocate. “No. You’ll take what we give you.”

Keith groaned in frustration. “You’re not giving me anything!”

“We’ll give you plenty,” Shiro growled, the possessive, greedy part of himself that he’d always held back before rising up. “We’re going to break you down and use you exactly the way you asked for. He’s going to spank you like the whore you are, and then I’m going to fuck your mouth. And later you’ll thank me for the privilege of choking on my cock.”

Keith let out a surprised moan, his eyes suddenly desperate as Lotor began spanking him again. “You like it when I talk like that?” Shiro asked, somewhat in shock.

“What does it— _ oh! _ —fucking look like?” Keith asked, gasping at a particularly hard blow.

“See? He can take it.” Lotor gave Shiro a strangely soft look, even as he was spanking Keith within an inch of his life.

“I’m not worried that he can’t take it,” Shiro found himself saying. “I’m worried  _ I’ll _ take too much from him.”

“You’ll never take anything I don’t want to give you.” Keith’s eyes are as complicated as ever, filled with the emotion that often doesn’t show on the rest of his face. They’re desperate for Shiro’s affection, slipping into submission, but also as stubborn as they always are.  _ I know I’m right _ , they say. 

Shiro finally begins to accept that fact. Keith’s always been right.

Shiro will never be able to take anything that Keith doesn’t desperately long to give. Keith’s slight frame belies both his wiry strength and mental fortitude. Keith will never be broken by anything, not high-stakes battles that light up the sky, not hellish mindscapes that surround him with his worst memories and anxieties, not even by the man he loves. Not only would Shiro never break Keith intentionally, but Keith’s indomitable spirit will never be broken if Shiro’s demons come out to assault him again and accidentally hit Keith in the crossfire. 

Keith is strong enough to endure what life throws at him. He’s strong enough to ask for what he wants, which is something that Shiro still struggles with himself. He’s strong enough to tell Shiro no, and he’s strong enough to tell him yes.

The least Shiro can do is listen to him.

“I must say, I’ve never spanked someone as pale as you before.” Lotor stopped to squeeze at Keith’s reddened ass. “This flush is very appealing.”

He turned to look at Shiro. “Would you like your turn with him?”

“Yes,” Shiro growled.

He untied Keith, and they arranged him so his head was hanging off the edge of the bed, with Lotor kneeling between his legs. Shiro took out his aching cock, deeply enjoying the fact that Keith was naked where they weren’t. He traced the head around Keith’s lips as Lotor got down on his front and began lapping between Keith’s legs.

“You aren’t allowed to come until he does,” Lotor said, and Keith let out a hungry moan.

Shiro pushed his cock into Keith’s hot, perfect mouth and slowly began dragging it in and out. Keith groaned again around him, the defiant tension leaving his body as Lotor’s tongue ran over his dick. Shiro began to take what Keith had to give, pushing deeper until he could trace his fingers over Keith’s neck and feel his cock in his throat.

Shiro pulled back to give Keith a little time to breathe, and Keith moaned forlornly at the loss. He grabbed at Shiro’s thighs and pulled him closer again even as he gasped for air. “Hands down,” Shiro said sharply. “You’ll take what I give you.”

Keith’s hands dropped reluctantly, and Shiro pushed back in, fucking Keith’s mouth in sharp, shallow thrusts as Lotor pulled back and began fingering Keith roughly. “Is this what you wanted? To be filled in both ends?” Lotor asked.

Shiro pulled out again, and Keith gasped, “Yes, so fucking do it, quit fucking pulling out—”

Lotor withdrew his fingers and slapped Keith’s hole, the wet smack echoing against the room’s metal walls, and then suddenly Keith was moaning loudly, his body shuddering. “Is he really—” Lotor looked up at Shiro, seeming awed.

“Did you just come?” Shiro asked in wonder.

“Y-yeah.” Keith’s head hung limply off the bed, his mouth parted blissfully.

“That was so bad,” Shiro said, biting back another grin. “Did we tell you that you could do that?”

“No sir,” Keith whispered, thighs quivering.

“Let’s get you further up on the bed so we can decide what to do with you.”

Soon Keith was on his back on soft sheets, Shiro on his left and Lotor on his right. They each held down one of his hands, having undressed in the interim so their bare skin brushed against his. “What do you think we should do with him?” Lotor asked as Keith pushed against their grips, letting them know that his fight was returning.

“Let’s tie him up,” Shiro said. “Maybe we can have a little fun without him.”

“What?” Keith looked taken aback.

“We’re not leaving,” Shiro said quickly. Jeez, way to hit Keith in the abandonment issues. “We’re just going to tie you up and play with each other a little bit. If that’s all right with everyone, anyway.”

Lotor nodded, smiling. Keith was nearly pouting. “That’s not fair!”

“Is that your safeword?” Lotor asked, eyebrow raised.

Keith pushed against their grips one more time, as if to spite them. “No,” he said reluctantly.

Shiro leaned forward to kiss him, pressing him down against the pillows as Lotor got the rope again. When Keith’s hands were secured above his head, Shiro turned to Lotor. “Hi,” he said.

Lotor chuckled. “Hi,” he said as Shiro leaned in for a kiss.

Where Keith had kissed contentiously, like he was starting a fight, Lotor kissed slowly and confidently, like he was already sure he was going to win. Shiro could see himself melting in Lotor’s hands, if he were just a touch more submissive. (Hell, maybe he’d melt anyway, someday.) He found himself copying Lotor just a tiny bit, trying to replicate that confidence in his own moves. Soon he couldn’t quite focus on that anymore, though, electing to run his fingers through Lotor’s long, soft hair and pull him closer by those broad shoulders.

“Wow,” Shiro said when their lips finally parted. A small whine sounded, and Shiro looked over to see Keith pressing his thighs together, eyes soft and pleading.

“Sir, please,” Keith said when they made eye contact.

“Please what?” Shiro asked.

“Please touch me. I...I want you both to touch me.”

“It’s too bad you misbehaved so much earlier, then.” Lotor grabbed Shiro by the hair and pulled him close again, kissing him as his other hand wrapped around Shiro’s cock.

Shiro gasped and reached down to reciprocate, the ridges on Lotor’s cock providing an interesting friction. He wondered how it would feel for Keith, when these were inside of him. (He wondered how they would feel inside  _ himself _ , but that was a thought for another time.) 

They pumped each other until Shiro came embarrassingly quickly, gasping into Lotor’s capable mouth. “S-sorry,” he panted, his hand loosening around Lotor’s cock. He felt suddenly overwhelmed because these two gorgeous men wanted him, because he was kneeling on this bed and feeling good when once, all he thought he’d ever know was pain.

“For what?” Lotor asked, short-circuiting Shiro’s brain when he curiously lifted his hand to his lips to taste his come. It couldn’t have been that great, but Lotor’s eyes shut closed for a moment, his lips curling up in a pleased manner.

“For...for coming so fast?”

“I take it as a compliment. I’m not sure why an apology would be necessary.”

Keith let out a small whine again, and Lotor asked, “Do you want something?”

“Please,” Keith said. “Anything.”

“That doesn’t give me much to go off of, you know,” Lotor said, smirking.

“Sir,  _ please _ —”

“I think you’ll be pleased to know,” Lotor said as he got up to rummage through the nightstand, “that I didn’t leave my protection in my other armor this time.”

“Fuck yeah,” Keith said softly as Shiro laid down next to him.

“Fuck yeah indeed.” Lotor rolled a condom over his cock and lifted Keith’s legs. “I regret that we didn’t get to do this last time.”

“What did you do instead?” Shiro asked, tracing a thumb over Keith’s nipple.

“We wrestled a bit. You know how he is. Needs to be subdued before he can behave.” Lotor bent Keith’s legs over his shoulders, pressing his cock against his folds. “Then I fucked his thighs.” He traced the head around Keith’s hole before skipping it entirely and rutting against his cunt. “He squeezed them around me so beautifully.”

“His hole does that when you fuck him too,” Shiro said hoarsely, his dick twitching even if he couldn’t get it up again quite yet. “Gets so nice and tight.”

“Please please please please—” Keith was saying over and over again, crying out when Shiro pinched his nipple.

“I look forward to it.” Lotor positioned his head against Keith’s hole again, pressing it inside slowly. Keith moaned sharply.

“Does it hurt?” Shiro asked. Keith nodded. “Is it too much?”

“No, I...I really like it when it hurts,” Keith said in a small voice.

“That’s right. You wanted to be used, didn’t you?” Keith nodded frantically, and Shiro continued, “You just wanted to be a good little hole for us to fuck. And I know you can be good for us like this, sweetheart. You just needed to fight for a while before you could relax. And now you can just lie back and let us use you like the slut you are.”

Keith groaned as Lotor began to pick up the pace, his chest heaving as the wet, smacking sound of flesh on flesh increased in volume. “Shiro, if you keep talking like that, I’m gonna—”

“That’s not how you ask if you can come,” Lotor said sharply.

Keith cried out as Lotor slammed in with a powerful, deep thrust. “Sir, sirs, please, fuck—”

“Tell us what you want,” Shiro growled.

“I wanna come, I want him to come inside me, I want you both to use me,  _ please _ —”

“Come for us.” Shiro reached down to jack off Keith’s dick between his thumb and forefinger, and both he and Lotor moaned.

“He certainly is getting tighter, my gods—” Lotor clenched his eyes shut, forgoing his previous aggressive thrusts to grind slowly and deeply into Keith, who suddenly went quiet as his legs shuddered around Lotor’s waist. When Lotor pulled out, Keith’s legs settled shakily against the bed, and Shiro leaned over and kissed his tired lips. Keith still tasted like Shiro. It was perfect.

“You were so good,” Shiro said as Lotor threw the condom away and settled next to them.

Keith laughed. “Are you kidding? I was terrible.”

“Yes, you were. And we had a lot of fun,” Lotor said, leaning over to kiss him too.

“Can someone untie me?” Keith asked, yanking at his bonds a little.

“Shit, I’m sorry,” Shiro said, finally panicking. It was a miracle that it had taken this long, really. “I should have made sure you could get free on your own, I shouldn’t have—”

“It’s all right,” Lotor said, reaching up to untie Keith. “I’m here too, you know.”

“...right.” Shiro sighed, relieved to not have only his own questionably stable mind to rely on. “Sorry.”

“You really don’t need to apologize as much as you have tonight,” Lotor said as Keith stretched out his wrists.

“Yeah,” Keith said, eyes soft. “You did great. I had a great time.”

“Good.” Shiro gave him a small smile that hopefully didn’t look as tired as he felt. Keith cupped his cheek and leaned in, the touch grounding Shiro as their lips met. They kissed slowly and deeply, and Shiro wondered if kissing Keith like this would ever stop making him feel short of breath. He hoped not.

After what felt like a perfect eternity, their lips parted. Shiro looked over to see Lotor carefully not touching Keith, staring at them with a quiet, sad fondness. At the eye contact with Shiro, he cast down his gaze and began sitting up. “I suppose I should leave you two to it, shouldn’t I?”

“Leave?” Keith asked, startled. “Why?”

“You should stay,” Shiro said, reaching out a hand to him. “Not if you don’t want to. But we’d love to have you here.”

Shocked, Lotor stared at Shiro’s hand, as if unsure of what to do with it. After a pregnant moment, he reached out tentatively, locking their fingers together. “Very well then.”

They settled into a cocoon around Keith, who snuggled into Shiro’s chest contentedly and reached behind himself to pull Lotor even closer to him. “This is nice,” he mumbled into Shiro’s pecs.

“I’m sure,” Shiro said, laughing. “You seem to have gotten the best deal out of all of us.”

“I don’t know about that. I’m pretty happy where I’m at myself,” Lotor said, leaning over Keith to kiss Shiro softly.

Shiro smiled against his lips. “Me too,” he said, and he’d never meant anything more.

**Author's Note:**

>  **The part that might be upsetting for trans readers:** There’s a part where Lotor is briefly confused about whether or not Keith is turned on because of cissexist literature about human male bodies. I think this part was where I was getting out salt about a lot of Voltron fics where human guys hook up with Galra or other aliens. There are often lines where Lotor or whoever asks a cis guy about demonstrating his “human male anatomy.” I don’t like my anatomy being called female, personally. There’s more than one way to be male, kthxbai.
> 
> Anyway, the moment is very brief, and Lotor comes out as the Galra equivalent of trans to Keith, and then they keep on truckin’ (AKA fuckin’). (I’m so sorry about my sense of humor.) I just want people to be aware of this moment just in case.
> 
> (I can't find the damn thing, but in this part Lotor is kinda like that one Trans Parrotfish meme that says, "Misgender another trans person; ETERNAL SHAME." But then they go on and have awesome sex, so I guess the shame isn't too eternal.)
> 
> Hopefully this fic doesn't get Jossed too badly by season 6 in a couple of weeks. *fingers crossed*
> 
> Finally, I'm [idontgiveaquiznak](https://idontgiveaquiznak.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr if you want to come say hi. Comments and kudos mean a lot to me, and I appreciate all of them. <3


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